Can a new form of social media help combat sexual harassment in a country where leaders deny that harassment is a problem?

A new Egyptian website promises to use
social media to combat sexual harassment. But will it work? The newly
launched HarassMap just came
online this week as a self-proclaimed “system in Egypt for
reporting incidences of sexual harassment via SMS messaging.”

The
smartly designed site has multi-language functionality and
sophisticated SMS integration. Users see a map of Cairo, with sexual
harassment incidents plotted according to criteria such as
“touching,” “verbal harassment,” and “indecent exposure.”Respondees who either SMS or post
incidents to the site are sent an autoresponse offering advice and
support. However, it is unknown how the
masses of Egyptian internet users will react to the software.

HarassMap is operated with theUshahidi engine, a Kenya-based
open-source crowdmapping project (Fast Company haspreviously
highlighted Ushahidi’s use in the Kenyan constitutional
referendum). SMS integration is provided through FrontlineSMS,
a text message system designed for use by NGOs outside of the North
America/Europe/Australia/East Asia axis of high-tech nations.
FrontlineSMS parses and collates SMS text messages sent to HarassMap,
while Ushahidi provides the mapping tech.

HarassMap
intends to sustain itself through profits made by SMS messages that
sexually harassed women send to them. According to the project’sExecutive
Summary, “it will also generate revenue from the SMS reports,
which will be reinvested into making the project sustainable and
increasing its reach through marketing and awareness […] if each of
these women [who is sexually harassedin Egypt] sends only one SMS
report to HM, revenues are projected at $734,000-$1.2 million. Our
goal is to encourage all women to send an SMS each time they are
harassed.”

According
to an interview with Rebecca Chiao of HarassMap in Egyptian
newspaperal-Masry al-Youm
(Egypt Today), the website will draw attention to the rampant sexual
harassment of women in Cairo. Chiao also criticized the unofficial
government policy of encouraging women to adopt conservative Muslim
standards of dress in response to harassment. A public service
announcement by the Egyptian government in early 2010 encouraged
women to cover themselves in order to prevent rape. In Chiao’s
words, “it makes me angry because it is so well designed, but it
gives the complete wrong message.”

According to
Mubarak–whose husband is Egypt’s de-facto autocrat and herself is one of the
country’s most powerful people on her own–sexual harassment in
Egypt is primarily a problem made
up by the media and radical Islamists.

Press
mentions of HarassMap started before the site even launched, with theAssociated
Press, The
Atlantic, Salon
and others running features on the project. Although the website is
now online, only one incident has been posted on the site as of 10AM
New York time on October 27, 2010.

For HarassMap, the name of the game is
obvious: Shaming police and authorities into doing something to
prevent sexual harassment in Egyptian public spaces. While Western
donors and media have shown great interest in the project, will
Egyptian women decide to send a text message each time they are
catcalled or inappropriately touched? That, for right now, should be
HarassMap’s primary concern.